by Lawrence J. Kamm
copyright 2003, L. J. Kamm
Clever end effectors eliminate sensitivity to work tolerances and the need for close or indefinable positioning accuracy.
Once upon a time a sculptor named Pygmalion carved a statue of a girl. It was so very beautiful and lifelike that it did indeed come to life; he named her Galatea and they lived happily ever after and inspired a play and a musical comedy: "Pygmalion" and "My Fair Lady."
For as long as history and archaeology tell us about, people have been carving magic idols, believing them to be sufficiently alive to hear and obey the prayers of their makers. ("Magic" is the control of nature without the restrictions of what killjoy scientists call "laws of nature.")
Animism is the most primitive form of religion; it attributes life and will to "the spirits of" trees and rocks and other objects. To this day some have the feeling that machines of metal and plastic have life and will. Have you, yourself, gentle reader, ever been angry with a car or a TV and struck or kicked it to punish its recalcitrance? A history of the development of a new computer was actually entitled "The Soul of a New Machine."
In the early days of the SEAC computer at the National Bureau of Standards, a famous programmer, after a long period of frustration, went into the computer room and had a long talk with the machine in which she sincerely begged for a greater degree of cooperation. (I was told this by a friend of mine, an engineer who worked with her.)
   
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